Suite No. 4 in E flat major for solo cello BWV 1010 (c 1720)

Prélude

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Bourrées I & II

Gigue

One of the many problems associated with Bach’s solo cello Suites – as with the violin Sonatas and Partitas, which were also written during the composer’s time as Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen – is who could have played them. That they were intended to be played, rather than read as theoretical answers to an intellectual challenge, is surely quite clear from the fact that Bach prescribed scordatura tuning in one of them and a five-string cello in another. But we cannot even guess, or not with any confidence, for whom they were intended, prodigious instrumentalist though he must have been. One suggestion is Christian Bernhard Linike, an apparently highly paid cellist in the Cöthen establishmemt. Another is Bach’s friend at Cöthen, Christian Ferdinand Abel. While it is known that Abel was a highly accomplished exponent of the viola da gamba, however, it is not known how much he played the cello – an instrument which, unlike the gamba, was more often hidden in the continuo at that time than featured as a solo instrument.

A particularly fascinating aspect of the Pélude to Suite No.4 in E flat is that it seems to symbolise the cello’s liberation from its continuo role. The arpeggios in even quavers with which it begins, and which persist until half-way through, could almost be the bass line of a piece in two or three parts – though, as the more unlikely modulations suggest, a piece of uncommon harmonic interest. But then, after a pause on a questioning low C sharp, the cello awards itself an elaborate cadenza. On their return the quaver arpeggios are chromatically varied and dispersed by soloistic semiquaver runs.

In the Allemande mellifluous semiquavers, judiciously interrupted by quaver leaps, predominate. The cello exercises still more rhythmic freedom in the Courante where, and most effectively in the second half, the basic quaver movement is harrassed by groups of semiquavers and quaver triplets.The solo voice of the instrument is heard to best advantage in the Sarabande as the poignant melodic line is so thoughtfully sustained over a sonorous accompaniment of double and triple stops. After that, the lively first Bourrée, itself offset by the veiled colours of the second Bourrée, offers a bright and timely contrast. To confirm its liberation, although once again it is confined to a uniform rhythmic pattern, the cello offers a virtuoso example of the Gigue form found at the end of all these suites.